Loading speed is now increased by over 120% by enabling data compression and other optimisation features.

The average file size was decreased by over 55%.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION

We have worked hard on establishing the best possible search engine and indexing setup. We are now much easier to find on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

The favicon (icon in the browser tab) was updated to match the current layout.

CLASSES

Requested: Links to past HOL classes have been added to member profiles.

CLASS APPLICATIONS

Some background improvements.

More options for the Head Office have been added.

MESSAGES

Reported: The issue where trying to send a new message from one's profile would result in a blank new message form with no recipients was resolved.

Reported: The issue where using double quotes in the first few characters of a message would break the layout was also fixed.

HANDBOOKS

The page has been reformatted so that only one Handbook is viewable at a time.

The Teacher Handbook has been added to the list of Handbooks.

Requested: One can now link to a single Handbook chapter."

PROFILES

Active / Passive status is now shown in member profiles.

FORUM

Requested: House Common Room links were added under the hamburger menu on the left-hand side of the forum header.

Reported: The issue where no visible 'x' was present when trying to dismiss alerts was fixed.

ADMIN LOGS

We have introduced logging of important changes and actions on the website.

KNOWN ISSUES

iPhone users on both Chrome and Safari have reported that they cannot interact with header links once logged out. We are still working on resolving this issue. The current workaround is to hit the 'Sign Up' button near the footer area and then go to 'Already a member? Log in.' link. Once logged in, the header navigation should work as expected on all devices. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to iPhone users.

More information for classes from previous terms can now be accessed by clicking on the class name from one's profile.

The functionality for handling one's class has been streamlined and added. If you are teaching a class in the current term, you can manage your class settings and members with ease. You can also manage your class from your profile under the Teaching tab.

Teachers will now receive a notification every 3 days about the number of pending memberships for each of their classes (if applicable).

POINTS

Teachers will now be able to submit points for completed work for their classes. Points can be submitted via the 'House Points' ('Points' on mobile) tab in the modal for your class. Please keep in mind the instructions when adding the description for the points.

General point submission has also been added. This can be accessed via the Staffroom page.

Members will receive a notification when they have been awarded points. All points will need to be approved by a member of the Head Office before they show up on the profiles. Should points be rejected or edited, the affected members will receive a notification and their profiles will be updated accordingly.

Staff members will be able to view the top points earners for a particular House (also overall) for a specified date range.

PROFILES

Reported: Classes from the 2016/2017 school year and earlier weren't displaying alphabetically. This has been fixed.

FRIENDS

Reported: The number indicating how many friends a person had added was incorrect. This has now been fixed.

BEANS

Requested: We have now introduced bulk bean submission for members of staff. This can be accessed from the Beans tab in the Staff Room.

The ability to manage and add new members of staff has been added to the Staff Room. Only those holding certain positions will be able to manage certain other positions.

CLASSES

Reported: Certain classes from the 2016/17 school year were still showing a 'sign up' button (when accessed via another person's profile). This has now been fixed.

The issue where the tabs in the class view would appear as collapse has been fixed.

HOUSE POINTS

Requested: Staff members can now review the house points they have submitted. Teachers will find that the recent point submissions section of their classes have been expanded to show all submissions, not just the most recent ones. General house points can be reviewed in the Staff Room in the Point History tab. There is also an option to search point submissions by date ranges.

Staff members can also review top points earners under the Point Earners tab in the Staff Room. Point earners can be filtered by house and date ranges. This should be convenient for house awards and similar.

O.W.L.s

Profiles now have an O.W.L.s tab, where the O.W.L.s earned to date can be viewed. These are ordered alphabetically. Individual awards will no longer be given out for O.W.L grades.

AWARDS

We have introduced forms for submitting awards. Teachers will be able to find class award they own through their class' interface under the Awards tab. They will be able to easily select an award and submit it to their students. General awards and House awards can be found in the Staff Room under the Awards tab. For convenience, the interface is similar to the one of submitting points or beans. Admins are now also able to upload new awards.

INTERFACE

Various aspects of the interface have been streamlined. This, amongst many small improvements, includes member search results and member girds such as the Marauders' Map or the Friends tab under one's profile, which would break for names of a certain length.

The layout of the announcements on the homepage has been redesigned so as to implement a more conventional newsfeed. The top-most announcement will be the most recent one. Pagination has been introduced so that older announcements can still be viewed (previously these disappeared once the announcement was no longer relevant). At a later stage you'll be able to filter through the announcements according to the category.

CLASSES

Graduation and quills have been appropriately set up for both One-Term and Full-Year classes, as have notifications. If you are currently teaching a class, please check the staff forum for more details and how this works. Please note that the quill database will only open on 10 January.

Class applications have been set up so that if you taught a class this term, you will have the opportunity to renew your class. Please note that class applications will only open on 1 January.

Reported: The "Submit" button for Class Assistant points was not working. This has since been fixed.

PETS

If you own a pet, you will now receive a notification 24 hours prior to them running away so that you are aware that they need to be fed or petted as soon as possible.

Due to there previously not being adequate warning, pets that ran away following the launch of HOL 5 have since been reinstated (provided they were last fed sometime in July) and fed.

ADMIN LOGS

Admin logs have been reformatted and are now viewable in the Staffroom for the Head Office.

We're pleased to present one of the most requested features: a new, comprehensive messaging system!

The messages system has been completely overhauled in terms of functionality. This also allowed us to fix some bugs that had previously arisen.

We've introduced a scrollbar for the left-hand panel so that a small subset of one's messages are shown at any given time.

Those teaching classes will be able to send bulk messages to current class members. The Head Office will have the ability to message the current members of any particular class if need be.

There is now the option of adding subjects to messages.

You will now be able to send individual messages to a person or a group of people, rather than them largely appearing in the same thread.

The message order has been inverted so that the newest message in the thread appears at the bottom. When opening a message, the most recent message will be displayed. To view older messages in that thread, you would scroll up.

Read receipts have been introduced. To view who has read a particular message, select the information icon and the names will appear.

NAVIGATION

We have removed the drop downs for both notifications and messages. There will still be an indication of new notifications and messages, but in order to read them, the icons would need to be selected.

There is also no longer a drop down for one's account. Instead, we've separated "Settings" and "Log Out" into two icons.

To conserve space on the mobile version of the website, we have replaced your HOL name with an icon and a tooltip showing it. Selecting the name (on desktop) or icon (on mobile) would still take you to your profile.

The long-awaited Art and Library Departments have been released. They can both be accessed via the Departments page on the main site.

The rating system has been completely overhauled. Instead of only submitting an overall rating, submissions will be rated on several criteria, which will vary from project to project. Additionally, points will be calculated differently: valid submissions will automatically be eligible for half the maximum points available, with the amount of extra points a person receives being calculated based on their average rating.

The Quidditch Department is still forthcoming, but we're working hard to test and refine it, so that it is ready for launch.

ADMIN LOGS

Some formatting bugs have since been resolved.

CLASSES

The layout of the class list was changed so that it would be more consistent with other areas of the site, such as Profiles.

Requested: Students who have previously been added to a class can now be dropped by request more easily. The appropriate button/link will appear next to the names of those who have earned 0 points. Clicking this will remove the student from the class and allow them to sign up for another class in its place. This feature should only be used if a person specifically asks to be dropped from a class. It should not be used as an alternative to dropping them due to lack of participation or similar.

Reported: Assistants previously couldn't be added to a class under certain circumstances. This has since been fixed.

Reported: Students previously couldn't be manually added to a class under certain circumstances. This has since been fixed.

The Quidditch Department has been released and can be accessed via the Departments page on the main site.

You'll be able to view standings for the current season as well as individual summaries for each match.

Quidditch Board members have controls that allow them to add new matches (for past and future seasons), indicate reschedules, edit officials and line ups, add match results and upload logs. All Quidditch related points will automatically be calculated and awarded by the system (being added directly to the points queue to await HO approval), once the relevant information has been added.

CLASSES

Reported: Full Year classes weren't displaying properly on the Classes page. This has since been fixed.